Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-10-19
'uNoccUpIED FIELDS. /"
WHAT STRENGTHENS THE ARMY Is
NEW RECRUITS.
STOP BOMBARDING THE OLD IRON
CLAD SINNERS.
Skepticism anf Its Reasons.

NOW WHAT rs JUSTIFICATION
Skepticism anf Its Reasons.
DIR. TALMAGE'S s SERMON SUNDAY, OCT. 9TH
BROOKLYN, October 9-The audiences a
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this autumn ar
larger than at any time during the histor,
of this church, and greater numbers 6
away not able to get in. Led by corne
and organ the congregation sang with grea
power the hymn: 49,
The morning light is breaking.
The darkness disappears;
The sons of men are waking
To penitential tears.
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, ID.
read and explained passages of Scripture
concerning the dawn of universal righte ,us
ue-s. The subject of his sermon was "Un
occupied Fields" and the text from Ro
mans, chapter xv., ". 20: "Lest shoulc
build upon another mans foundation."-
Dr. Talmage said:
Stirring reports come from all parts O.
America showing what great work tht
churches of God are doing, and congratu
late them and their pastors. Misapprehen
sions have been going the rounds, saying
that the outside benevolences of this partic
ular church are neglected, when the fact il
that large sums of money are being raised
in various ways by this church for all styles
of good objects not always through the
boards of our own denomination. This
church was built by all denominations ol
Christians and by many sections of this
land and other lands, and that obligation
has led us to raise money for many objects
not connected with our denomination, anC
this accounts for the fact that we have not
regularly contributed to all the boards com
mended. But rejoice in that you have
done as church magnificent work, and
am grateful that we have received during
The year by the concession of faith in Christ
725 souls. which fact l mention, not in
boastipg, but in defence of this church,
showing it has been neither idle nor ineffi
cient. The most of our accessions have been
from the outside world, so that, taking the
idea of my text, we have not been building
on other peoples foundations.
In laying out the plan of his missionary
tour Paul sought out towns and cities which
had not yet been preached to. He goes to
Corinth, city mentioned for splendor and
vice, and Jerusalem, where the priesthood
and the Sanhedrim were ready to leap with
both feet upon the Christian religion. He
feels he has especial work to do. and he
means to do it. What was the result? The
grandest life of usefulness that man ever
lived. We modern Christian workers are
not apt to initiate Paul. We build on 9TH
er peoples foundations. If we erect a
church we prefer to have it filled with fami.
lies all of whom have been pious. Do we
gather Sabbath school class, we want good
boys and girls, hair eombed, faces washed,
mapners attractive. So church in this
day is apt to be built out of other churches.
Some ministers spend all their time in fish
ing in other people ponds, and they throw
the line into that church pond and jerk out
a Methodist, and throw the line into anoth-
er church pond and bring out presbyter-
ian, or there is a religious row in some
neighboring church, and whole school of
fish swim Of from that pond, and we take
them all in with one sweep of the net
What is gained? Absolutely nothing for
the general cause of Christ. It is only as in
an army. when a regiment is transferred
from ONT division TO another, from the Ten
nessee to the Potomac.
What strengthens the army is new re-
cruits. WlIat have always desired is that
while we are courteous to those coming
from other focks, we build our church not
out of other churches, but out of the world,
lest we build on another mans foundation.
The fact is, this is big world. When, in
our schoolboy days we learned the diameter
and circumference of this planet, we did
not learn half. 1t is the latitude and longi-
tude and diameter and circumference of
want ard woe and sin that no figures can
calculate. This one spiritual continent of
wretchedness reaches ACROSS all zones, and
if were called to give its geographical
boundary, would say it is bonnded on the
North and South and East and West by the
great heart of Gods sympathy and love-
Oh, it is great world. Since 6 O'Clock
this morning sixty thousand eight hundred
persons have been born, and all these null
tiplied populations are to be reached of the
gospel. In England, or in our eastern
American cities, we are being much crowd
ed, and an acre of ground is of great value.
but out West five hundred acres is a small
farm, and twenty Thousand acres is no un-
usual possession. There is q vast field here
and everywhere unoccupied, plenty of room
more, not building on another mans foun-
dation
We need as churches to stop bombarding
the old iron clad sinners that have been
proof against thirty years of Christian as
sault Alas, for that Church which lacks
the spirit of evangelism, spending on one
chandelier enough to light five hundred
souls to glory, aud in one carved pillar
enough to have made thousand men ''pil
lars in the house of our God forever" and
doing less good than many log-cabin
meeting house with tallow candles stuck in
never seen a college or known the difference
between Greek and Choctaw. We need as
churches to get into sympathy with the
great outside world, and let them know that
none are 30 broken hearted or hardly be-
stead that will not be welcomed. ''Eow
says some fastidious Christian, II don't like
to be crowded in church. Don't put any
one in my pew" My brother, what will
you do in heaven? When a great multi
tude that no man can number Assem- bies
they will put fifty in your pew. What are
the select few to day assembled in the
Christian churches compared with the
mightier millions outside of them, eight
hundred thousand in Brooklyn, but less than
one hundred thousand in the churches p
Many of the churches are like q hospital
that should advertise that its patients must
nave uOUuluk WOioG tudu tOOludCu6
rounds" but no broken heads, no crushed
ankles, no fractured thighs. Give US for
treatment moderate sinners, velvet coated
sinners and sinners with gloss IN. 1t is
as though man had farm of three thou
sand acres and put all his work on one acre.
He may raise never SO large ears of corn,
never so big heads of wheat, he would re-.
main poor. The Church of God has bestow-
ed its chief care on one acre, and has raised
splendid men and women in that small en-
closure, but the field is the world. That
means North and South America, Europe,
Asia and Africa, and all the islands of the
sea. 1t is as though after great battle
there we're left fifty thousand wounded and
dying on the field, and three surgeons gave
all their time to three patients under their
charge. The major general comes in and
says to the doctors: 'tCome out here and
look at the nearly fifty thousand dying for
lack of surgical attendance" mo" say
the three doctors, standing there tanning
their patients, Eve have three important
cases here, and we are attending to them,
and when we are not positively busy with
their wounds. it takes all our times to keep
the flies Off" Ia this awful battle of sin
and sorrow, where millions have fallen on
millions, do not let US spend all our time in
taking care of few people and when the
command comes: sGO into the world,n say